Gossip Girl's third season premiere this Monday will give fans a chance to hit the reset button on the "who on Gossip Girl is doing what to whom" part of their brains. To reduce any further cranial atrophy due to inactivity in the Gossip Girl cortex, I came up with a solution.Yesterday I posted part one of a three part interview with Josh Safran, writer and co-executive producer of Gossip Girl, where he addressed the internet leak of Chuck's man-on-man kiss, the responsibility he feels writing gay-themed storylines, and better ways to play cat and mouse with journalists and bloggers trolling for scoops.Today's post, part two of my interview, is all about the characters: their romances, their friendships, their ascents to power, their secrets, and how, even after all the shenanigans they've pulled, the writers are still able to create untried storylines for them.
Adrienne Gruben: How do you keep each character's storyline fresh?
Josh Safran: There's always a little bit of a worry, like, "Has Serena done too much? Is there anything left for Chuck to do since it seems he's done everything?" The fact of the matter is, there is always more. We surprise ourselves with how much story there is still to tell with these characters. I love them. I think Cecily did a great job creating them in the books. I think Stephanie and Josh did a great job of creating them for the series. I think they constantly expand.
AG: So let's talk about platonic and romantic relationships. What about Dan and Serena?
JS: I'll say this because Stephanie said it somewhere else: this season isn't about Dan and Serena as a couple.
AG: By the end of season two, you really got the sense that they were platonic. There were no longing glances or Serena hanging on Dan's every word.
JS: That is a real testament to what great actors we have on the show. These are two people who in real life are a great couple, and yet, on screen, you believe that they are just friends, that they are no longer in a relationship.
AG: Not to pander, but they practically seem like siblings, in a good way. It's remarkable.
JS: That's what I'm saying. These actors are all so good, and I know everyone says that about the show they work on, but our cast is just simply amazing.
AG: Let's talk about the female friendships and the relationships between mothers and daughters. The two episodes where I cried were "The Serena Also Rises" and "Valley Girls". Those episodes mined the mechanics of both those kinds of relationships. I think on Gossip Girl, like in real life, they can have some of the same intensity as romantic relationships.
JS: Serena and Blair are the central relationship of the show. They always have been, and always will be. Second to that are the friendships and family relationships across the board. We try to write from that theme, although it isn't always recognizable on first glance. "Valley Girls," for instance, was about mothers and daughters, female friendships, and how they grow and change and deepen through surprising circumstances. In "The Serena Always Rises" when Serena told Blair to step out of her light, leading into their catfight the next episode, a lot of the writing of that relationship and its issues came from a very personal place for the writers, myself included. It doesn't matter that I'm not a teenage girl. The guys on the staff get female relationships, and the girls get things like Nate and Dan's bromance. We're good in each other's skins. This season, with Serena and Blair in different places, their friendship might be tested. But their bond is always so strong underneath. It's funny, at the very beginning, people talked about how Blair was dark and Serena was light, but as we've shown, they each have both. Which is universal. And it's some of this stuff that we're talking about that makes me hope people will still be talking about these characters in ten years, like they do about Angela and Rayanne from My So-Called Life, or Rory and Lorelei from Gilmore Girls.
AG: Let's talk about a few of the characters who provided big surprises at the end of last season. I thought Georgina's switch from being spiritual to acting like her old self was a little drastic. It was like "Boom! I'm spiritual! Boom. I'm not!"
JS: Just like a lot of people's relationship to religion, it's more complicated than that. All I'm saying is wait and see because her relationship with [Jesus] is not that black and white. And as for Michelle, I wish we could clone her because she is on Mercy this season. We just love having Georgina around. The range of her character, from psycho b*tch in season one to "saved" in season two -- and you believe both of them completely -- is testament to both Michelle as an actress and Georgina as a character. She's a blast to write.
AG: Did you research the Jesus camp?
JS: Leila Gerstein, the writer of that episode, did. And she was the one who came up with the "OMJC" phrase, which I thought was genius. All that, and she's a nice Jewish girl from New York.
AG: With Jenny, you will be ping-ponging back and forth between college and Constance, since Jenny is now queen. By the way, Jenny assuming Blair's queendom surprised me since she is an outsider and she and Blair had that altercation, actually a history of them. Plus for a moment we thought she was going to sell Blair down the river with that piece of gossip.
JS: You know, as Stephanie says, Constance is a major part of Gossip Girl. Eric and Jenny are now the age that Serena and Blair were when they first started. Jenny is going to be a different kind of queen than Blair, and that is what is going to make that story not a retread of Blair's queendom in seasons one and two. And continuing on from finding people in different places than when we left them, that's also true where Jenny and Eric are concerned. She's queen -- but not exactly comfortable with it.
AG: What about the relationship between Dorota and Blair? Is their current relationship, the camaraderie, the fact that they are co-conspirators, what you had originally intended?
JS: When Dorota is introduced in the second episode of season one, you watch Blair talk to her as if she's one of Blair's parents. Their relationship just came out that way. Incidentally, Zuzanna [the actress who plays Dorota] doesn't have an accent, but her parents are from Poland. She mimics their accent. We love writing the dynamic between Dorota and Blair.
AG: I love Vanessa, but I feel like because she had a crush on Dan for 14 seconds, and during those 14 seconds, Serena perceived her as a threat, there is a small, but vocal contingent that won't allow themselves to see how great she is; they won't let it go.
JS: That is funny to me, especially when you think of everything that Blair and Chuck, or whoever else, has done. I guess there is that group that felt very protective of [Dan and Serena's] relationship.
AG: Plus her one dastardly act, hiding Nate's letter to Jenny, she admitted it and apologized. I can't imagine the show without her. I mean, she is a certain type of quintessential New Yorker.
JS: She so is. She's indie. She's intellectual. She's homeschooled. She's not rich. Her parents never wanted to be rich. Her sister is in a scrappy punk band. The writers love writing for her. We love watching Serena and Blair's world from her vantage point. Interesting things will be happening with Vanessa, we haven't seen her family backstory, and we will be delving into that, specifically her relationship with her mother.
AG: Onto the more secondary characters, did you write the bit where Vanya is reading Ann Coulter because Dorota suggested it to him?
JS: No, that was written by [episode writer] Sarah Frank Meltzer. The character of Vanya is someone we introduced in the webisodes, and if you haven't seen them, you should. You'll see more of Vanya this season.
AG: Is Gabriel based on Rick Von Sloneker from Metropolitan?
JS: No. Gabriel is based very loosely -- and I mean loosely -- on someone else. When we initially come up with stories, we'll take stuff from headlines, but by the time we actually get through the episode, the real story has gone so far in the other direction, that there is hardly ever any real connection to its origin left.
AG: I have a really outlandish question. It came from my wondering if there were any circumstances that could really shake up the character dynamics, and then I realized that what I came up with might bring joy to Gossip Girl fans who are also sci-fi fans--all three of them. So: What would be the challenges for the characters if Gossip Girl took place in space?
JS: The challenges? You want to coop them up? That ship would blow up! We can't even be on a city block without characters going at each other! The ship would last an hour and a half and then boom!
AG: So let's put them in suits and let them float around, Major Tom style, but not float away, of course.
JS: Even with no gravity, Blair would still think she's floating in Serena's shadow, and that everything revolves around Serena -- the earth now, especially - and Serena would still pretend to be oblivious to that fact.
Adrienne Gruben: How do you keep each character's storyline fresh?
Josh Safran: There's always a little bit of a worry, like, "Has Serena done too much? Is there anything left for Chuck to do since it seems he's done everything?" The fact of the matter is, there is always more. We surprise ourselves with how much story there is still to tell with these characters. I love them. I think Cecily did a great job creating them in the books. I think Stephanie and Josh did a great job of creating them for the series. I think they constantly expand.
AG: So let's talk about platonic and romantic relationships. What about Dan and Serena?
JS: I'll say this because Stephanie said it somewhere else: this season isn't about Dan and Serena as a couple.
AG: By the end of season two, you really got the sense that they were platonic. There were no longing glances or Serena hanging on Dan's every word.
JS: That is a real testament to what great actors we have on the show. These are two people who in real life are a great couple, and yet, on screen, you believe that they are just friends, that they are no longer in a relationship.
AG: Not to pander, but they practically seem like siblings, in a good way. It's remarkable.
JS: That's what I'm saying. These actors are all so good, and I know everyone says that about the show they work on, but our cast is just simply amazing.
AG: Let's talk about the female friendships and the relationships between mothers and daughters. The two episodes where I cried were "The Serena Also Rises" and "Valley Girls". Those episodes mined the mechanics of both those kinds of relationships. I think on Gossip Girl, like in real life, they can have some of the same intensity as romantic relationships.
JS: Serena and Blair are the central relationship of the show. They always have been, and always will be. Second to that are the friendships and family relationships across the board. We try to write from that theme, although it isn't always recognizable on first glance. "Valley Girls," for instance, was about mothers and daughters, female friendships, and how they grow and change and deepen through surprising circumstances. In "The Serena Always Rises" when Serena told Blair to step out of her light, leading into their catfight the next episode, a lot of the writing of that relationship and its issues came from a very personal place for the writers, myself included. It doesn't matter that I'm not a teenage girl. The guys on the staff get female relationships, and the girls get things like Nate and Dan's bromance. We're good in each other's skins. This season, with Serena and Blair in different places, their friendship might be tested. But their bond is always so strong underneath. It's funny, at the very beginning, people talked about how Blair was dark and Serena was light, but as we've shown, they each have both. Which is universal. And it's some of this stuff that we're talking about that makes me hope people will still be talking about these characters in ten years, like they do about Angela and Rayanne from My So-Called Life, or Rory and Lorelei from Gilmore Girls.
AG: Let's talk about a few of the characters who provided big surprises at the end of last season. I thought Georgina's switch from being spiritual to acting like her old self was a little drastic. It was like "Boom! I'm spiritual! Boom. I'm not!"
JS: Just like a lot of people's relationship to religion, it's more complicated than that. All I'm saying is wait and see because her relationship with [Jesus] is not that black and white. And as for Michelle, I wish we could clone her because she is on Mercy this season. We just love having Georgina around. The range of her character, from psycho b*tch in season one to "saved" in season two -- and you believe both of them completely -- is testament to both Michelle as an actress and Georgina as a character. She's a blast to write.
AG: Did you research the Jesus camp?
JS: Leila Gerstein, the writer of that episode, did. And she was the one who came up with the "OMJC" phrase, which I thought was genius. All that, and she's a nice Jewish girl from New York.
AG: With Jenny, you will be ping-ponging back and forth between college and Constance, since Jenny is now queen. By the way, Jenny assuming Blair's queendom surprised me since she is an outsider and she and Blair had that altercation, actually a history of them. Plus for a moment we thought she was going to sell Blair down the river with that piece of gossip.
JS: You know, as Stephanie says, Constance is a major part of Gossip Girl. Eric and Jenny are now the age that Serena and Blair were when they first started. Jenny is going to be a different kind of queen than Blair, and that is what is going to make that story not a retread of Blair's queendom in seasons one and two. And continuing on from finding people in different places than when we left them, that's also true where Jenny and Eric are concerned. She's queen -- but not exactly comfortable with it.
AG: What about the relationship between Dorota and Blair? Is their current relationship, the camaraderie, the fact that they are co-conspirators, what you had originally intended?
JS: When Dorota is introduced in the second episode of season one, you watch Blair talk to her as if she's one of Blair's parents. Their relationship just came out that way. Incidentally, Zuzanna [the actress who plays Dorota] doesn't have an accent, but her parents are from Poland. She mimics their accent. We love writing the dynamic between Dorota and Blair.
AG: I love Vanessa, but I feel like because she had a crush on Dan for 14 seconds, and during those 14 seconds, Serena perceived her as a threat, there is a small, but vocal contingent that won't allow themselves to see how great she is; they won't let it go.
JS: That is funny to me, especially when you think of everything that Blair and Chuck, or whoever else, has done. I guess there is that group that felt very protective of [Dan and Serena's] relationship.
AG: Plus her one dastardly act, hiding Nate's letter to Jenny, she admitted it and apologized. I can't imagine the show without her. I mean, she is a certain type of quintessential New Yorker.
JS: She so is. She's indie. She's intellectual. She's homeschooled. She's not rich. Her parents never wanted to be rich. Her sister is in a scrappy punk band. The writers love writing for her. We love watching Serena and Blair's world from her vantage point. Interesting things will be happening with Vanessa, we haven't seen her family backstory, and we will be delving into that, specifically her relationship with her mother.
AG: Onto the more secondary characters, did you write the bit where Vanya is reading Ann Coulter because Dorota suggested it to him?
JS: No, that was written by [episode writer] Sarah Frank Meltzer. The character of Vanya is someone we introduced in the webisodes, and if you haven't seen them, you should. You'll see more of Vanya this season.
AG: Is Gabriel based on Rick Von Sloneker from Metropolitan?
JS: No. Gabriel is based very loosely -- and I mean loosely -- on someone else. When we initially come up with stories, we'll take stuff from headlines, but by the time we actually get through the episode, the real story has gone so far in the other direction, that there is hardly ever any real connection to its origin left.
AG: I have a really outlandish question. It came from my wondering if there were any circumstances that could really shake up the character dynamics, and then I realized that what I came up with might bring joy to Gossip Girl fans who are also sci-fi fans--all three of them. So: What would be the challenges for the characters if Gossip Girl took place in space?
JS: The challenges? You want to coop them up? That ship would blow up! We can't even be on a city block without characters going at each other! The ship would last an hour and a half and then boom!
AG: So let's put them in suits and let them float around, Major Tom style, but not float away, of course.
JS: Even with no gravity, Blair would still think she's floating in Serena's shadow, and that everything revolves around Serena -- the earth now, especially - and Serena would still pretend to be oblivious to that fact.
